Medications can help us stay healthy, but taking them incorrectly can be deadly. This holiday season – when we see our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, whom we haven’t seen sometimes in months – is an opportunity to have important conversations, and tell our loved ones about life saving tools.

The statistics are staggering: an estimated 125,000 people die every year in the US alone because they forget to take their meds on time, double dose or otherwise don’t take their prescribed meds as they should. Drug interactions are dangerous as well, causing 7,000 deaths a year in the US and 195,000 hospitalizations. With over a third of older adults in the US regularly taking 5 or more medications or supplements – 15% are potentially at risk for a major drug-drug interaction.

Some people might not know it, but there’s a free app out there that can be a real life-saver:

Medisafe is the #1 app that helps people stay on top of their meds and prevents dangerous interactions. With over 4.5 million registered users, and an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars on the app stores (by over 200,000 reviewers!), Medisafe is a proven solution that every American should get to know.

Towards this holiday season, we’ve analyzed how seniors in particular are taking advantage of the Medisafe app. Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is an opportunity to talk with parents and grandparents, and make sure they know about this tool, that can help keep them safe and healthy.

Our data shows that people 65 and older are using their smartphones effectively to manage their health, and are getting even more out of the Medisafe app then the general population.

Here’s what we’ve learned from analyzing the data. People 65 and older:

Since they take more meds, this group is also at greater risk for dangerous drug interactions. Medisafe’s drug interaction feature alerted over 100,000 Americans to interactions between meds, over 50% of which were dangerous or severe. Think about it – we get meds from doctors, dentists, specialists, psychiatrists….who is watching over us to make sure they don’t interact? Nobody…until now.

So this holiday season – sometime between the main course and desert – may be the perfect time to tell someone you love about Medisafe, install it on their phone, and maybe – just maybe – save their life.